The present disclosure generally relates to appliances, and more particularly to an evaporative cooling condenser for a household appliance.
Government regulations and consumer demand strongly encourage the development of low energy use appliances. Cooling and air-conditioning systems for appliances such as refrigerators use a great deal of energy. Efforts to produce highly efficient appliances can be costly. For example, various approaches to energy-saving appliances have been developed that include the use of vacuum panels to decrease the heat entering the refrigerator. However, the use of vacuum panels requires the addition of expensive parts, thus increasing the total cost of the appliance for a consumer. Evaporative cooling is used in larger commercial refrigeration applications and systems to reduce the heat of the liquid refrigerant flowing from the condenser into the evaporator, thereby increasing heat absorption and decreasing the amount of energy use required. However, a practical method to apply an evaporative cooling process to a household appliance, such as a refrigerator, has not been developed.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system that addresses at least some of the problems identified.